Roundtable Review: Ashura – Mindhood

WarpRider – Take a good riff and milk it for what is worth and you have yourself a cool thrash metal band; heavy on guitars while the rest of the band keeps up. There is a certain element of Ashura’s song construction that reminds me a bit of that classic Metallica album Kill ‘Em All. It’s raw, uncompromising, and mostly quite fast; even the vocals are in the same ballpark as the James Hetfield of yesteryear. Overall, it’s cool to hear a band that epitomizes what thrash used to sound like when the goal was aggression and sheer speed with a little bit of melody (for the chicks). Ashura covers the bases and should be appealing to fans of the “classic” big four. 3.0

Irmelinis – Ashura is clearly a talented and sincere bunch of young guys with a passion for good old thrash. With a vocalist slightly reminiscent of Hetfield, a powerful sound and songs that are speedy, fun and, most importantly, they have good diversity, so even my non-thrashy brain can enjoy this album. I’d like to hear more from this band! 3.0

ChristopherMammal – Marketers talk about the elusive USP, the Unique Selling Proposition. Ashura has the product but lacks the USP that might make them stand out above the swelled ranks of bands still playing old-school thrash. They use some good intros in songs such as “In God We… Dust!” and “Heritage”. For the most part, though, they stick to one basic formula throughout the album. If you go for speed rather than groove, that should please you. I fear, too, that the vocals are not always up to the standards being set in a highly competitive genre. 2.5

A Metal State of Mind Score – 2.8 out of 5

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About ChristopherMammal

I've made it to Mammal. I still hope to be classified as Human one day. Meanwhile I have evolved enough to recognise different types of music as well as the shrieks of certain vervet monkeys who are known for their scurrilous behaviour in the proximity of unguarded bananas.